How to compress a PDF to under 2MB
2MB sits between the very tight KB-range caps used specifically for passport-style photo uploads and the more generous 5-10MB limits general document forms often allow. It shows up as a document-attachment limit on several Indian government and exam workflows — income tax e-filing's supporting document uploads, and SSC, UPSC, and various state recruitment portals' scanned certificate or mark-sheet attachments are common examples. Exact limits vary by portal and by form, and they do change, so treat "2MB" as the common pattern to aim for, not a universal guarantee — always check the specific number shown on the upload page you're using.
A quality setting around 45-60% typically gets a multi-page scanned document (a mark sheet, a certificate, an ID proof scan) under 2MB while staying clearly legible for whoever reviews it. A shorter document or a smaller original file can often stay toward the higher end of that range; a longer scanned bundle — several certificates combined into one PDF, for instance — may need to go lower to fit.
Which Indian government portals commonly cap uploads around 2MB?
Document attachment limits vary by portal and by the specific form, and they do change over time, so always check the exact limit shown on the upload page you're using rather than assuming — but a 2MB-range cap for scanned document attachments (as opposed to the much smaller KB-range caps used specifically for passport-style photos) is a pattern that shows up across several Indian exam and e-filing portals, including income tax e-filing document attachments and various SSC/UPSC/state recruitment supporting-document uploads.
What quality setting works for a 2MB target?
Somewhere around 45-60% typically gets a multi-page scanned document (mark sheets, certificates, ID proof) under 2MB while staying clearly legible for a reviewer. Fewer pages or a smaller original file can usually stay higher in that range; a longer scanned bundle may need to go lower.
Should I compress the whole document or just the large pages?
This tool compresses every page uniformly, which is simplest and works well for most scanned documents. If only one or two pages are unusually large (a high-resolution photo page mixed into an otherwise text-heavy document, for example), you may get a better result using
Split PDF to isolate and compress just that page separately, then rejoin with
Merge PDF.
Is my document uploaded anywhere?
No — the compression runs entirely on your device using pdf.js and pdf-lib. That matters especially here, since documents people compress to 2MB are often ID proofs and government forms — nothing gets uploaded to a server in the process.